New 2012-2022 BLS Employment Projections: What Career Counselors Need to Know

The U.S. 2012-2022 Employment Projections provide new data for career counselors and career development professionals to rely upon in helping people make career and education choices.  I put together a summary of resources to help you incorporate this new information in your work. You can make your own expert “take” on the data based on your experience and geographic area.

Start with the Basics and the Big Picture

You will find helpful summaries about the projections in the Winter 2013/14 issue of the Occupational Outlook Quarterly. The graphics are great for people (like me) who need a visual boost to understand data. If you are short on time, read the Introduction and the Occupational Employment section (the PDF versions are easier to read).  For those of us who do not work with these numbers every day, it helps to get reminders on how to interpret the data.  For example, “faster growth” does not necessarily mean a greater number of new jobs.

Trends and Highlights 

• Occupations related to healthcare are projected to have the fastest growth and add the most new jobs.
• Most growing occupations require a degree or post-secondary training/certification.
• Workers make more money with a degree or post-secondary training/certification.
• More older people will be working and working longer (the 65-75 age group more than any other group).
• The labor force continues to become more diverse with Caucasians’ share declining and Hispanics’ share to rise.
• The construction industry is recovering, but not yet to 2007 levels.
• Most job growth is coming from replacing workers, not new jobs. 

Most of the trends are unsurprising given technology advances and the state of our economy.  Issues continue with unemployment, underemployment, and most job creation in poorly paid retail and service occupations.

Best Graphs to Look At

The best graphs to understand job outlook by occupation are in the Occupational Employment Section of the OOQ I mentioned earlier.  If you want to drill down to promising occupations by degree level, scroll down to the last half of the article (page 13 on the PDF).

Differences between the 2010-2020 and 2012-2022 Projections

Laurence Shatkin nicely summarizes in his Career Laboratory Blog the differences between the employment projections two years ago and the new ones just released.

Help Others with Critical Thinking

It pays to help people evaluating career choices take a hard look at how “promising” and growing certain occupations are. For example, lawyers continue to get a high growth and median wage marks in the BLS data.  But the legal profession is going through big upheaval and change, due to technology, the Internet, offshoring, and businesses’ willingness to pay the high cost of using large law firms.  There is also a wide gap between the number of middle-class and low income people needing legal representation and lawyers who can afford to serve them. For example, the Washington State bar association magazine has had a number of articles about these changes and the difficulties for young lawyers to get hired.  So people should not just immediately look at the graph and say, hey – lawyers is a promising career. It may be for some but there are many variables to consider.

New Projections and Occupations Added to the Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH)

The new job outlook information is now available for specific occupations in the Occupational Outlook Handbook, just out yesterday (January 8, 2014).

As a consequence, Career Key updated its career interest inventory to include several new occupations added to the Handbook (see the Teacher’s Guide below) along with the new job outlook projections for all the test’s occupations.

There is a new version of the OOH “Not just for teachers” Teacher’s Guide, that includes a list of the new occupations listed in the Handbook. Counselors and other career development professionals will find the explanations and context for data helpful.

Funny Note: The OOH's occupational profile for legislators has been deleted, gone the way of textile occupations.  Hmmm. 

We are huge fans of both the Occupational Outlook Handbook and the Occupational Outlook Quarterly. As Mr. Shatkin points out in his blog, we are extremely lucky to have government resources like these. Even Canada, Great Britain and other countries you would think have similar resources - in fact, do not.  So give a cheer for OOH and OOQ author, the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics and have fun with numbers! It only comes once every two years…

Common Core Standards and School Counseling

Why are Common Core Standards important to school counselors?  How do they relate to ASCA Standards?  Career Key answers these questions in a new website guide, "Common Core and ASCA Standards, School Counselors and Career Key."

Career Key's author and counselor educator Dr. Lawrence K. Jones, NCC has written this guide to help school counselors collaborate with teachers in getting students career and college ready. Free resources include:

1. "Common Core State Standards: A Challenge and Opportunity for School Counselors." PDF eBook;
2. "Help Middle School Students Get Career/College Ready with Holland's Theory." Webinar recording (12/13/13) with Dr. Jones and myself. 100% of feedback survey respondents would recommend it to a colleague.
3. Learning Activities with Overlapping ASCA National Model and Common Core Standards, PDF Download; and
4. ASCA and Common Core Standards Addressed in Career Key Test Taking Scenario, PDF Download.

For more, visit our school counseling resources page at the Career Key website.

Holland’s Theory Promotes Innovation Skills

Taking advantage of Holland’s Theory of Career Choice in the form of a good person-work environment fit promotes skills needed for innovation.  These skills include collaboration and problem-solving, which top the list of 21^st Century “in-demand” job skills in employer surveys. When people work with people of similar interests, abilities and values, collaboration and problem-solving are natural outcomes. 

I made the Holland Theory/Innovation connection while listening to innovation evangelist Tony Wagner’s keynote at this summer’s National Career Development Association conference. Here are three other ways applying Holland’s Theory to career choices promotes innovation:

1. Person-environment fit encourages curiosity.  Wagner says that “curiosity, which is a habit of asking good questions and a desire to understand more deeply,” is an “innovation skill.” A good person-environment fit encourages immersing oneself in a career field, especially in a job market rewarding specialization. Colleagues interact with others of similar interests, learning from one another and feeding off mutual enthusiasm and curiosity in a career field.

2.  Knowing one’s strongest personality types leads to healthy risk-taking and confidence in career decision-making. Knowing more about themselves gives people a platform from which to take risks and create innovation within a job. It also enables necessary job and career changes required in the new economy. If you know your compatible environments within the world of work, you can see more options to make better, more informed choices.

3. Learning about the six different personalities and work environments teaches people about the value of “differing gifts.” Understanding Holland’s Theory highlights the need to collaborate and network with people blessed with “differing gifts.” Wagner says collaboration is an integral part of innovation – especially across disciplines. For example, an architect who wants to promote her innovative designs would likely be more successful integrating advice and ideas from Enterprising and Conventional types to promote and sell her work.

For more on innovation, see Tony Wagner’s book, Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World.

New Career Key Career Test Booklet Available

Career Key's popular career test is now available in a printed booklet form, the Career Key Test and Activities Booklet! Sets of 35 cost $75 (about $2 per booklet) and are available for sale on Amazon.com and in the American School Counselors Association bookstore.

This 20 page booklet includes Career Key's scientifically valid career interest inventory as well as activities covering career development's most important concepts, such as how to make a good decision. At the Career Key website, there is also a free PDF guide to using the Career Key Test and Activities Booklet to meet ASCA's National Model Student Standards.

Released with a new design and content in September 2013, it is full color and environmentally friendly, made with 100% recycled bright white paper and soy inks.

Free shipping and more sample pages are available at the booklet's product page on Amazon.com.

Career Key's Career Test Gets New Design and Update

The paper-pencil version of Career Key's popular, valid career interest inventory and career test has a beautiful new design and update.  Available in Career key's eBookstore, the self-scoring, paper-pencil Career Key career test helps youth and adults assess their personality and identify matching careers for satisfaction and success.

In addition to a professional graphic redesign, the test now includes advice for exploring matching college majors and education programs.  Research shows that a close personality major match leads to higher grades, greater persistence in the major, and higher on-time graduation rates.

Career Key's QR Code

The new test also includes a QR code so that test takers can use their smart phone or tablet to quickly access Career Key's online resources.  For example, in Match Your Personality with Careers, test takers can access all the test's occupations and links to current career information about each one from the Occupational Outlook Handbook.

The test takes about 15-20 minutes and is self-scoring.  Licenses to print individual and group copies can be purchased in the eBookstore for the same great price of $4.95 (individual) and $12.50 (group - 25 copies).

New Career Key Website Design

If you haven't visited recently, please check out Career Key's new website design!  It's brighter, cleaner and with a new logo. A big thank you goes out to our new graphic design and IT gurus who made it happen: Barb Rowan Design and Circa Consulting.

At the same time, we revised and updated a number of our articles, including their URLs and content - in particular:

• Networking, 
• Identify Your Skills, which is now part of Be Job and Work Skills Smart,
• The Free Agent Outlook on Work,
• How Parents Can Help.

We are still committed to no advertising, 10% website sales donation to charity, and the best science and practices of career counseling. 

Please let us know what you think!  We have a new Connect with Career Key on Social Media page with all the ways to stay in touch with us. 

Military to Civilian Transition: Making It a Success

If you are making a military to civilian career change or advise people who are, Career Key has published a new online guide to making it a success.

In it, Career Key author Dr. Lawrence K. Jones, NCC recommends five strategies for making the transition a success:

1. Anticipate potential emotional and psychological challenges - make a Military to Civilian career plan to minimize the adjustment.
2. Know yourself and your Military to Civilian Career Change- understand why you're leaving the military and what job satisfaction really means. 
3. Know your options in a Military to Civilian Career Decision - and identify career options that fit you best. Our valid career assessment can help.
4. Make a Good Decision using a science-based career decision-making method; and
5. Prepare for Cultural Differences - learn how military and civilian employers differ.

According to recent studies, one of the biggest challenges to veterans is translating their military skills to the civilian work world.  In addition to several government sites that do an automated military to civilian skills translation, we recommend our job skills article:
Be Job and Work Skills Smart
It walks you through the process of identifying your skills, including ones you enjoy using most, and how to communicate them to employers. It includes a free, interactive "My Work Skills List" to fill out.

Other related articles that might interest you:
Choosing a Military Career
Career Change
Job Satisfaction